Internet Explorer - Endless Security Problems

In researching the latest IE security disaster, I am across this article. Date: just over a year ago. Subject: Major flaw revealed in Internet Explorer; users urged to switch. Microsoft response: "cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw". Well exactly how many flaws does it take? How serious do those flaws need to be?

Now fast forward to today. The headline is the same. Again. The only thing that has changed is Microsoft's response - instead of "it's only one flaw", they say "it's only in one very old version of IE" - which is a sly way of implying that it is the users own fault. Never mind that independent experts have said that it exists in IE 7 and IE 8.

How many times do we have to do this? How many zero-day bugs does it take? Here is the solution to these problems: links where you can download a different browser. Try one. Heck, try them all, it's quick and easy to download and install any or all of them. If you have been a "loyal" Microsoft / Internet Explorer user until now, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised at how nice, easy, fast and secure every one of these are. Best of all, these are only the most obvious options, just a tiny bit of looking around will reveal several more which are probably just as good.

Firefox - probably the best known and most widely used alternative. Available for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

Opera - My personal favorite. You have to see Speed Dial to realize how nice it is. Available for Widnows, MacOS, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and a variety of mobile devices and operating systems.

Chrome - Google's alternative. I don't care for it because of privacy concerns, but that's just me, a LOT of people think this is the greatest thing since indoor toilets. Available for Windows, and in Beta release for MacOS and Linux.

Safari - Apple's browser for MacOS, also available for Windows. Beats me why it isn't available for Linux, but there are lots of people working on remedying this one way or another.

So, that's the four major alternatives. As I said, there are others - if you have a favorite that isn't listed, add a comment with a link, and maybe a short description. This is a golden opportunity to show a lot of users that there are vastly superior alternatives available to Microsoft's stupid, buggy, massively security-challenged browser.

Of course, it won't be the last opportunity. There will be another... and another... and another... ad nauseum.

jw 19/1/2010